The U.S. presidential election continued Wednesday in excruciating fashion with ballots being counted in battleground states that were always expected to determine the victor. As former Vice President Joe Biden was declared the winner in Wisconsin and then Michigan, President Donald Trump moved on multiple legal fronts to get a recount in Wisconsin and stop counting mail-in votes where Biden is surging (this despite Trump already having declared himself re-elected last night). Currently, Biden leads on electoral votes 248-214, with 270 being the magic number. But even if he manages to win it all, the Democrat may have to defend his triumph against the promised onslaught of litigation, which Trump has said will reach a Supreme Court firmly controlled by Republican-appointed justices, including three he picked himself. But for right now, Biden is very much on the brink. —David E. Rovella

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Here are today’s top stories

A President Biden would probably face a U.S. Senate still controlled by Republicans and a House with a smaller Democratic majority. Indeed, big technology stocks led by Facebook surged on Wednesday as investors bet Washington gridlock will limit new legislation that could target the industry.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump megadonor accused by Democrats of using the U.S. Postal Service to suppress absentee voting, is in big trouble with a judge after he appeared to ignore a federal court order to avoid delivery disruptions for mail-in ballots during the election.

For the second presidential election in a row, polling has failed to correctly assess the mood of the nation heading into a U.S. presidential election, Cathy O’Neil writes in Bloomberg Opinion. It’s time to kick the habit once and for all.

An election official counts absentee ballots at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, on Nov. 4.

Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg

European nations are imposing more measures to battle the resurgent coronavirus, with Greece nearing a lockdown and Italy enacting curbs in Milan and Turin. Belgium reported record hospital admissions, Austrian infections hit a daily high and French intensive care units are looking as full as they did in April. Denmark said it found a new strain of Covid-19 while total cases in India, second in number only to the U.S., rose to 8.31 million. Here is the latest on the pandemic.

A close or contested outcome to the presidential vote was supposed to be Wall Street’s doomsday scenario. Investors needed only an hour to shake it off. The never-ending stock market rally is still going.

Bond traders are throwing in the towel on bets for a second coronavirus bailout package, sending yields reeling as pressure mounts on the Fed to fill the gap with more support for a decimated U.S. economy. Here is the markets wrap.

The video-game boom caused by the pandemic is expected to send industry revenue up 20% this year to $174.9 billion, outstripping earlier forecasts and dwarfing the market’s growth in 2019.

What you’ll need to know tomorrow

• Jack Ma isn’t in charge when it comes to Ant: Xi Jinping is.
• Ant’s undoing has put the brakes on a $3 trillion investor craze.
• The U.S. just formally left the Paris climate accord.
• Qualcomm gave an upbeat outlook on sizzling 5G chip demand.
• Saudi Arabia loosens controversial curbs on foreign workers.
• Canada expands citizenship to foreigners to stem exodus.
• Is New York CIty’s new subway map a geographical mess?

What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Pursuits

What to Drink As Election Day Drags On and On

Other than government officials, the people most in charge of how your election night (and week for that matter) goes are likely to be bartenders, sommeliers, and wine store employees. They’ve seen customers mark the best moments of their life and drown out the worst ones. Here is what you should be ordering.

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No Playbook—Leading Through Uncertainty: Changes in the workplace have been accelerated by the pandemic and the ongoing U.S. reckoning on race. Join us Nov. 6 for the next Bloomberg Equality briefing as executives from Expensify and sponsor P&G discuss who is creating a blueprint for leading through these tumultuous times. Register here.

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